Content marketing is marketing that cuts through advertising. In an age when people are saturated with ads, content marketing is designed to connect with potential customers and provide them with useful information without them feeling like they are sitting through an ad or being bombarded with promotional flim-flam.

The result is a message that breaks through the advertising clutter, something people no longer trust. Content marketing is the opposite of advertising. Instead of ramming a logo down their throats, it engages people with ideas rather than a product, serving the community and sharing information. It is conversational and human, it’s not trying to sell anything. Instead it provides information, helps people with decisions and possibly entertains them.

‘I think everyone is rushing in and wanting to do it but no one is really doing it with passion and purpose and strategic intent.’

Trevor Young

Melbourne content marketing author, speaker and consultant Trevor Young says Australian companies are way behind their US counterparts when it comes to content marketing.

There are not as many doing it per business,’’ he says. “The ones that do it stand out and have been doing it for years.”

The problem, according to Young, is that few Australian businesses are strategic about it. “I think everyone is rushing in and wanting to do it but no one is really doing it with passion and purpose and strategic intent. If they do it, they only do half of it and get no result.”

There is no shortage of Australian companies that say they want to embrace content marketing. But they fail to prepare briefs for content creators, or don’t think strategically about how to do it. In the end, they don’t own it, and treat it as a press release rather than something that engages the market and makes people think – without trying to sell them something.

Cam McLellan, who set up the successful property investment education provider Open Wealth Creation, attributes the success of his business to content marketing. He believes many companies which profess to use content marketing don’t even come close.

Whatever they’re providing is just regurgitated crap. There are no original ideas or depth and defined strategy of their own,” McLellan says.

What’s important, he says, is to be original and daring. “Our first motive is to get that content out there rather than selling houses,’’ he says.

As well as companies needing to come to terms with content marketing, so do the professionals who will be providing that content: from journalists wanting to refresh their skills to get a better grip on this new media channel to PR and marketing writers who want to think and write like “real journalists”.

Australian Writers Centre

Launched by author and former Fairfax journalist Valerie Khoo in 2005, the Australian Writers Centre site writerscentre.com.au is rich in engaging content. While pitched very much at the local market, it has a certain global appeal for writers all over the world looking for a connection and source of inspiration.

We have online courses so people come to us from the around the world,’’ Khoo says. “Probably 20 per cent would be international.”

The Writers Centre offers these courses as its core business. The courses are in areas like how to reinvent yourself as a writer, creative writing, magazine and newspaper writing, business writing, travel writing, blogging and social media. It also offers international writing tours to places like Paris, Oxford and Ubud.

There is a blog which covers such areas as advice for writers, student successes, competitions, blogging and digital writing, writing events, fun with words and interviews with successful writers where they talk about their work and their experience writing.

Then comes the weekly newsletter detailing areas like new courses, writing tips and all the latest industry information.

And there is an engaging podcast series covering such areas why writers should care about Google +, blogging and the law, writing studios, interviews with successful writers, famous writers’ rules on writing and how to write blogs that make money.

Intrepid Travel

Melbourne-based Intrepid Travel’s brand of content marketing has an international reach that clearly appeals to an overseas audience. It pitches itself as a tourism company with a difference, one that would draw clients from around the world.

First come the YouTube offerings – or “Intrepid TV” – providing would-be travellers with information about travelling in various parts of the world.

What makes it even more engaging is the Intrepid Travel blog which takes clients on journeys to far-away destinations chosen with particular tastes in mind, as well as special tips for the not-so experienced traveller. It’s all there: the Burma Railway, the world’s 10 friendliest countries, the best sailing spots in Europe, how to pack a month’s worth of clothes into carry-on baggage, and features of the best travel spots in the world. The aim here, first and foremost, is to inform.

As part of that, the company has also teamed up with The Perennial Plate. Intrepid’s website explains the partnership: “ Let’s be honest, travelling goes hand in hand with eating. And sustainable travelling goes hand in hand with sustainable eating. That’s why Intrepid has partnered with The Perennial Plate – the filmmaking, travelling, sustainably-eating, chef and documentary-maker duo, Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine.”

Daniel and Mirra will travel around the world with Intrepid, showcasing some of the most inspiring, intriguing and sustainable eating stories from around the world. Their culinary expeditions will take them to some of our most popular destinations, with tantalising taste treks through Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, South Africa and Argentina.

To expand its content marketing, Intrepid’s efforts on social media are nothing short of awesome. Its Facebook page has 205,641 Likes, it has 48,000 followers on Twitter and it has 1.44 million followers on Google+.

Open Wealth Creation

Open Wealth Creation is a team of property specialists providing advice on how to build a successful investment portfolio in the Australian market.

Featured on the BRW Fast 100, it had revenue of $6.2 million last year, representing growth of 137 per cent over four years. Its success reflects a content management strategy built around educating and empowering investors. While this is pitched at the local market, it is built around trends that have been used overseas.

Open Wealth Creation’s founder and CEO Cam McLellan has written and self-published a book, The Property Investor, for sale on the company’s website. Alternatively clients can pick up a free e-book he has written, The Ultimate Mini Property Investors Guide, which provides tips on areas like counter-cyclical investment strategy, depreciation and the 10 mistakes property investors make.

‘On the videos, McClellan and his colleagues … appear in T-shirts and are very relaxed, all designed to engage the clients. It’s the opposite of hard sell and it’s all designed to put people at ease.’

Another part of the content marketing strategy is built around the company’s blog, which also features videos. On the videos, McClellan and his colleagues give advice to people but there is nothing heavy-handed about it – they appear in T-shirts and are very relaxed, all designed to engage the clients. There is even some cheeky stuff where they talk about the most boring book ever published (it’s John Howard’s biography). It’s the opposite of hard sell and it’s all designed to put people at ease.

Blog topics include how to watch out for the property sharks, how to maintain an ageing property investment and how to become a successful investor. It speaks the readers’ language, ensuring relevance and engagement, while also informing. Visitors to the website also get free access to a 13-part video education series.

‘Because we have been so open about providing content free of charge we get 2500 enquiries to our website every month now… Our first motive is to get that content out there rather than selling houses.’

Cam McLellan

McLellan explains that Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book The 4-Hour Work Week gave him the idea for the blog. Until then, he barely knew what a blog was. He went to the public relations agency Edelman in New York which was handling publicity for the book. There he was introduced to the concept of content marketing. They put him in contact with Trevor Young, who was then Edelman’s director of strategy and innovation in Melbourne.

McLellan attributes Open Wealth Creation’s phenomenal growth rate to content marketing: “Because we have been so open about providing content free of charge we get 2500 enquiries to our website every month now.”

The key, he says, was to approach it as a communication exercise, not as a sales promotion. The result: an instant connection with the public.

Our first motive is to get that content out there rather than selling houses,’’ he says.

Leon Gettler is a Melbourne business journalist, author and broadcaster. He is a former senior business writer and management columnist at The Age.